Parametric effect monads and semantics of effect systems

Abstract

We study fundamental properties of a generalisation of monad called parametric effect monad, and apply it to the interpretation of general effect systems whose effects have sequential composition operators. We show that parametric effect monads admit analogues of the structures and concepts that exist for monads, such as Kleisli triples, the state monad and the continuation monad, Plotkin and Power's algebraic operations, and the categorical ┬┬-lifting. We also show a systematic method to generate both effects and a parametric effect monad from a monad morphism. Finally, we introduce two effect systems with explicit and implicit subeffecting, and discuss their denotational semantics and the soundness of effect systems.